Shelter Essay

Analyse how social and cultural contexts can influence advertising. Use the Shelter advert to support your answer.  [15 marks]

In your answer you must:  

> Analyse how social and cultural contexts influences advertising 

> make judgements and reach a conclusion on why they advertised in this way

The shelter advert consists of three close up faces there is a lack of diversity both socially and culturally. In this advert there is a lack of culturalization represented. Consequently, this can be both a good and bad thing - people don’t stereotype homeless people or they want to go with a stereotypical white person, possible to appeal to the typical British citizen. The poeple used look ‘average’ and don’t look scruffy and dirty as people assume homeless people are therefore going against the cliche. This. Causes people to realise that homelessness can happen to anyone and isn’t specific to certain types of people. Overall, the people featured in the advert are ethnically diverse, however it is not obvious. 

As well as that, all the people used are adults possible causeing more of an emotional attachment due to being more relatable. They may feel that seeing someone the same age as them might help them realise that all of this may happen to them.
The colour scheme of this advert is very basic - red, white and black. It is dark yet simple with the colour scheme which connotations a sense of seriousness about the issue and shows that homelessness isn’t a joke or to be taken lightly.
Altogether, this advert creates a very serious tone when expressing the solemninity of homelessness. Like most adverts today there is an emotional attachment created when viewing emotive posters. Most adverts are relatable on some kind of levels which makes people want to donate and support them.